SIL Reflects on the Summer

For their final blog post, the 2016 SIL reflects on their summer. Read more here!

Wentworth Students take home People’s Choice Award at Design Museum Hack-a-thon

In a city where every storefront, public park and new or historical architectural wonder is vying for our attention, the idea of activating an unused and overlooked part of the cityscape is a daunting task. Last weekend Design Museum Boston hosted their Urban Innovation Hack-a-thon and challenged teams to do just that; activate a highway overpass.

Nine Industrial Design students (Allison Black, Brigit Bratland, Justin Canas, Matthew Harrison, Connor Pelletier-Sutton, Richard Woessner, Michael Tremblay, Andrew Reynolds, and Taylor Vanzile) along with Mechanical Engineering professor Steve Chomyszak and ID professor Carly Hagins and alum Tony Travaglini (BIND ’14) formed the Accelerate sponsored team. The team was in impressive company with Payette, Autodesk, Essential Design, Shepley Bulfinch, Fidelity Labs, CBT, MassArt alumni, Bose and Stantec rounding out the nine other teams present. Their mission was to prototype an idea for how to activate the 93 overpass where South Boston meets the South End. Read more on our blog!

Social Innovation Lab: Week 9

The SIL begins finalizing plans, and thinking about how to best wrap up the summer. Read more here!

Social Innovation Lab: Week 8

Even with the short week due to the holiday, the SIL was hard at work! Check out their progress on their blog.

Social Innovation Lab: Week 7

The SIL Fellows reflect on the mid-point of their co-op. Get caught up on their work right here on their blog!

Social Innovation Lab: Week 6

Our Social Innovation Fellows wrap up week 6! In this week’s blogs they discuss getting ready to make prototypes, how they feel about the group’s progress, and getting critiques from professors at WIT. Read it all here!

Social Innovation Lab Week 5

Our SIL has been hard at work! Check out their progress in Week 5 right here!

Social Innovation Lab Week 3

Our Social Innovation Lab fellows reflect on their 3rd week, where the visited Taza chocolate factory, spoke to the owners of the Chili Mango + Lime food truck, and learned more about Artisan’s Asylum and Greentown maker’s spaces.

This Wentworth-Born Startup’s Vest Aims To Improve the Lives of Cancer Patients

Life is already challenging enough for cancer patients, but what can make their lives even more challenging is the shoulder bags they have to carry for chemotherapy infusion treatments. For people receiving this kind of outpatient chemotherapy, the bag can be cumbersome and make the IV and pump equipment vulnerable to damage. It also might make them stand out in a crowd when all they want to do is get on with their day. Read more Here

100 Designers Are Hacking the I-93 Overpass

Wentworth students to participate in this weekend’s Urban Innovation Festival sets its sights on the forlorn connector between South Boston & the South End. Read on BostInno.

Checking in with Noex at MassChallenge

When we last spoke with the Massachusetts trio called Noex, they had just gotten into MassChallenge as one of the 128 finalist startups for the 2016 year. The team, made up of two Startup Challenge alums, Scott Bonney BELM ’14; Brandon Dryer BELM ’14; and their friend Dan Zaleski WPI – BSECE ’15 and BSRBE ’15; are working to change the world of physical therapy by creating a wearable device that will provide physical therapy patients with immediate feedback and data on their progress and form. The data will then be able to be sent to a doctor to monitor their progress. You can read more about Noex in their first story here.

Now a month into the “most startup-friendly accelerator on the planet” we spoke with Scott Bonney to get an update on the team and their progress. Read more here!

Social Innovation Fellows Impact Manufacturing, Making, and Play Cultures

This summer, Accelerate, Wentworth Innovation + Entrepreneurship Center, is partnering with the Boston Children’s Museum and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as part of Accelerate’s Social Innovation Lab [SIL].

Senior Teams Shine at Summer PitchRound

This summer is the four-year anniversary of the Startup Challenge. In 2012 Monique Fuchs, Associate Vice President of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, took a chance and held a pitch event for students interested in entrepreneurship. It was a huge success. Accelerate has now become more than just the Startup Challenge but our student’s passion for entrepreneurship has only grown. Last night’s pitch event was a fitting tribute to the four-year anniversary of the Startup Challenge. Read the full article on BostInno.

Accelerate Benefactor Anil Jha featured on IPOEF

Anil Jha (MET ’68, HON ’15), benefactor of the Anil D. and Stefania R. Jha Ideation Space and friend of Accelerate, was featured this month on the Intellectual Property Owners Education Foundation website. In the article he talks about technologies he has developed, how his experience at Wentworth has impacted his career and his Involvement with the Institute and Accelerate. Check out the article on IPOEF’s website here.

Accelerate Alums Accepted into MassChallenge

It all started with a down river kayak trip for the trio known as Noex. Dan Zaleski (WPI – BSECE ’15 and BSRBE ‘15) , Scott Bonney (WIT BELM ’14), and Brandon Dryer (WIT BELM ’14), have gone from college students with an idea to being one of 128 teams in the 2016 MassChallenge. They intend to bring data to a space previously unmeasured: at-home physical therapy.

Accelerate Welcomes PICCPerfect Co-Founder Emily Levy

Helping teams grow, giving them a relatable perspective, and connecting them with outside opportunities is just some of what Emily Levy, from PICCPerfect, is looking forward to. Emily is joining Accelerate this summer, having graduated from Babson College with a Business Degree concentrating on Technology, Entrepreneurship, and Design (TED).

As Co-Founder and CEO of PICCPerfect – a medical accessory company that helps patients going through PICC Line treatment feel good and look good at the same – Emily has a solid foundation on what it takes to start a company: “I’ve been running my own business for the past year and a half and I think what is unique about me is I’m pretty much their age, so being not only a mentor to [the teams] but also being a realistic mentor like ‘Hey I did this, you can do this’”. Read more details here!